Scotch College

Copelen chairs auction

This annual auction of unique chairs is now in its third year. Artists and celebrities of renown are invited to paint or decorate a chair to be auctioned, with all proceeds going to Copelen.

Pro Hart, Denise Drysdale, Hon. Peter Costigan, Mark Mitchell, and Adele Palmer are just some of those who have been asked to participate.

Copelen is a non-government community service agency, which operates a wide range of over twenty programs in southeast Melbourne providing counselling and support for children, young people and families. The major emphasis is on preventive support, to address problems at an early stage.

This year two groups of boys from the Year 11 Art class were invited to enter into the Copelen Chairs Celebrity Art Auction.

Guy Batters and Charles Love went through the design process and decided on a sea theme, using small mosaic tiles to decorate their chair. Small brown tiles on the legs of the chair represent the sand and the seat and the back represent the water and the animals that live there.

Matthew Walpole, Geoffrey Irwin and Chris Cory decided on a sculpture of a car as their response. The unique wire sculpture takes shape around their chair.

On Thursday 21 October 1999 Geoff Irwin, Matthew Walpole and Guy Batters attended the Copelen celebrity chair auction at the ANZ Building, 200 Queen Street Melbourne. It was a great night and the boys enjoyed recognition and feedback about their work. The boys' chairs were in the silent auction which enabled them to watch the progress of the bidding. When bidding closed the mosaic chair of Guy and Charles topped the bidding in this section at $240.

The sculptural chair of Matthew, Geoff and Chris raised $170. The boys were excited about raising $410 for their charity.

We finished the night soaking up the atmosphere of the main auction of celebrity chairs, which climaxed with one chair by Pro Hart selling for $550.

It had been a very worthwhile project.

Mark Mason Year 11 Art teacher